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Ketchum Has an App for Your Crisis

What can an app do for you? More importantly, what can’t it do for you?

You may recall that the PRSAreleased an ethics app last year to some mild controversy–and yesterday The Wall Street Journal‘s new “CMO Today” blog brought us news that Ketchum is about to release an app to help you conquer crisis management.

You read that right. First, we have to share this bit from WSJ’s Steven Perlberg:

“…the firm hopes [the app] will give sweaty-palmed clients the ability to conquer any would-be PR nightmare from the comfort of their own phone.”

Aren’t you curious now?

Here’s the promo clip:

While crisis communications is, in general, the last thing you’d think to automate, Ketchum SVP James Donnelly tells WSJ that the goal is “better coordination when it comes to managing reputation.”

So it’s like a CMS (crisis management system)…but there’s a catch:

“…it’s not meant for average crisis-prone people without Ketchum action plans (sorry, Donald Sterling).”

In short, it’s a way to store your company’s individual crisis plan on your phone…and to limit access to appropriate parties.

“Within a few clicks of our crisis management app, we had guidance through our pre-approved scenario plan and other tools designed to manage the situation and prepare our spokesperson. Previously, this may have taken more than an hour to contact our off-site team, gather internal and agency resources, customize a statement, get approval and align our corporate response.”